McDavid has five points, Oilers score seven in win against Flames

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid scored a natural hat trick and had five points, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Calgary Flames 7-1 at Rogers Place on Saturday to sweep a back-to-back, home-and-home set.

It was the second time this season McDavid has scored five points in a game. He had a goal and four assists in an 8-5 win against the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 31. McDavid has six five-point games, one six-point game and nine hat tricks, including one in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in his NHL career.
"You have some nights where the puck just goes in for you and you don't feel that good, and nights where you feel amazing and it just doesn't go," McDavid said. "Hockey is a crazy game like that. It felt good tonight and it went in for me, and I thought our team played really well."
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and an assist, Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl each had two assists, and Mikko Koskinen made 43 saves for Edmonton (12-8-0), which has won six of seven, including a 2-1 win at Calgary on Friday.
"There are just some nights where the puck seems to follow him around," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said of McDavid. "When he has the puck great things happen, and that was a little bit of the case tonight."

Andrew Mangiapane scored for Calgary (8-9-1). Jacob Markstrom allowed five goals on 15 shots and was replaced by David Rittich at 8:17 of the second period, the first stoppage of play after McDavid's third goal. Rittich made seven saves.
"That was probably one of the toughest moments since I've been here," Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk said. "The way it went, the way things are going, things snowballed, and it got out of hand pretty quickly. I feel terrible for our goalies. They come in and they battle every practice and every game, and if it wasn't for them right now, who knows where we'd be in the standings? We'd be pretty close to the bottom."
Alex Chiasson scored on the power play at 3:29 of the first period when he redirected a pass from McDavid to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. McDavid set up Nugent-Hopkins at 5:41 for a 2-0 lead.
"There is not really anybody out there like him," Nugent-Hopkins said. "He drove the game right from the start, and the boys just kind of followed along. I thought he was solid all night long. It's fun to watch, it's fun to be a part of."

Mangiapane scored on a scramble in front on the power play at 7:54 to make it 2-1. Tippett challenged for goaltender interference by Tkachuk, but the goal stood after video review, and the Oilers received a minor penalty for delay of game.
McDavid scored on the power play at 17:11 when he tipped a shot from Tyson Barrie to extend the lead to 3-1.
"We all know what type of player he is," Flames defenseman Mark Giordano said of McDavid. "But we go back to the quality of chances, you can't give a great player like him those looks. He had a lot of time and space, a lot of time to make his mind up what he was going to do, and he made us pay. We're a whole lot better than that. I thought yesterday we did a great job on the top two players on their side (neither McDavid nor Draisaitl had a point), and tonight was a total opposite."
McDavid scored 1:06 into the second period off a rush down the right side for a 4-1 lead and completed the hat trick at 8:12 to make it 5-1.
"Obviously, he was really, really good tonight," Flames coach Geoff Ward said. "I thought we did a real good job on him last night, and tonight he was good. Good players, they have the ability to do that. Saying that for us, we still need to be aware of that, and when you give a good player as much time and space as we did tonight, that's what happens."
Nugent-Hopkins made it 6-1 on the power play at 12:38, and Josh Archibald scored 36 seconds into the third period for the 7-1 final.
"To be able to win both and in regulation, it's big for us," McDavid said. "But it's still early on in the year, there's lots of hockey left. We're playing well and we need to keep winning games."
NOTES: Oilers defenseman Slater Koekkoek sustained an upper-body injury in a collision with Flames forward Sam Bennett 14 seconds into his first shift in the first period. Edmonton forward Kailer Yamamoto sustained an undisclosed injury in the third period. Each will be reevaluated Sunday, Tippett said. … It was McDavid's second natural hat trick in the NHL (Oct. 4, 2017, also against the Flames). … Barrie has 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in his past 12 games. … Bennett got 14:19 of ice time after playing 6:30 and being benched in the third period Friday. He had requested a trade through his agent and was a healthy scratch Feb. 4. … Calgary forward Glenn Gawdin had four hits in 6:04 in his NHL debut. … It was the second straight start Markstrom was pulled after allowing five goals. He was replaced by Rittich at 7:47 of the third period in a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.